Introduction

Storylining is the process of organizing your isolated ideas around a common guideline

Think about the last presentation you delivered. Can you summarize it concisely in one minute? Now, do you think your audience would be able to do the same?

If you answered “yes” to both questions, you likely already master storylining. If you hesitated, keep reading to learn how to dramatically improve your business presentations.

Storylining is the methodical approach of structuring individual insights in a way that guides your audience through a clear, logical, engaging and persuasive narrative. Every good book or movie follows a clear storyline. Learning storylining is basically learning how to write a story, in the business world.

It is an essential component of an impactful presentation

Impactful presentations share three characteristics

Strategy consulting firms (McKinsey, BCG, Bain, etc.) are known for building great PowerPoint presentations. Their presentations are different in many ways.

Top consulting firms know that even the best ideas are useless if they aren’t communicated efficiently. In addition to pertinent insights, a good presentation needs to be visually well-designed (I will tackle the visual aspect in a future article) and have a great storyline.

Engage your audience

The reason consultants spend so much time structuring messages around a logical flow of information is that it is the best way to spread your ideas and engage your audience.

A well-structured story helps your audience grasp complex ideas quickly and effortlessly. By presenting information in a logical flow, you reduce cognitive load and help your audience follow along without getting lost.

It also makes people more likely to remember information that is presented. We are wired to remember stories better than disconnected facts, making storylining a powerful tool.

Keep you focused on what matters

Making sure you have a good story forces you to focus on what’s important for your audience. Good stories are not a collection of facts and data, individual insights must connect. You can’t include an analysis in a presentation only because you worked on it, it needs to add value to the story.

However, storylining best practices are rarely applied, because they are rarely known

Storylining is rarely applied

Do you often meet colleagues valuing building a story as much as having the right insights on a slide? Probably not. Storylining is often overlooked, much like slide writing, even though it’s crucial to effective communication. Professionals prefer to focus on getting their facts right, rather than on how they will communicate them.

Chances are that if we take a random business presentation:

• Insights presented are very pertinent
• The overall flow of information feels disjointed
• There is little to no layout consistency (”unfortunately, given the limited time frame we had, we had to prioritize real work over the look and feel”).

Storylining is rarely known

Storylining is undervalued because it’s not taught. Professionals don’t realize the value it can bring, or simply have no clue there are best practices to apply. Besides strategy consultants, most professionals have never learned how to create a strong narrative for a business presentation. Just like there are rarely any training for slide writing, there are rarely any available training on storylining.

Best practices

To write a powerful storyline, I suggest that you follow an approach based on four steps: (1) Start the storylining process early on a blank slide. (2) Think top-down, structure your findings according to the pyramid principle. (3) Add context. Wrap your pyramid with an SCR framework. (4) Iterate, storylining is a trial and error process.

1. Start the storylining process early on a blank slide

Craft your story as soon as you can

When you can, we usually recommend that you start crafting your story as early as possible in the presentation creation. Try imagining what your story will look like before you start thinking about slides.

This can be confusing at first, but it’s a very good way of keeping a high-level view on your work and making sure the slides you will build or include all contribute to the story. This method ensures that the story stays cohesive and that unnecessary data or insights don’t clutter the presentation.

If you want to go a step further, you can even start the storylining process before you have done your research / analyses. This requires building hypotheses, testing them and updating the storyline continuously depending on the results of the analyses. This is, by the way, what most consultants do.

Use a blank slide in your favorite presentation software

Storylining can be done in various formats. Although you may opt to use a word document or even jot down your ideas on a plain piece of paper, I would definitely recommend to use your favorite presentation software (PowerPoint, Keynote, Google Slides, etc.) for this process. You will indeed probably use it to build your presentation anyway so you might as well use it directly.

You don’t need to build many slides at this stage though. Take a blank slide and start your draft. This slide will be the executive summary.

2. Think top-down: start with the takeaways, work backwards to the supporting arguments and evidence (Pyramid principle)

In a business environment, top-down stories are particularly efficient

Top-down communication structure is generally well appreciated in companies. It’s particularly true when communicating with senior executives, but I find that it’s usually efficient at all levels. It can be counter intuitive as we are usually not used to starting with the answer, but it has different benefits.

Capture your audience’s attention early.

Top-down approaches are very direct, they start with the key messages or conclusions you want your audience to take away. If you quickly give your answers, your audience will be curious and start listening faster.

Give busy executives the spoilers they want.

Business leaders are more interested in your conclusions than in what lead you to them. They will probably challenge you more on your recommendations than on your methodology. In a business presentation, you should not wait too long until you tackle your conclusions.

Make sure you deliver your main messages.

Giving your key points fast ensures that what’s most important is tackled, even if you don’t get to go into the level of details you wanted to. It is particularly important if your audience does not have time to go through your entire presentation, which can happen with senior audiences for example. When you present, you are the guide, people will react to what you present. You don’t want to spend your time discussing one third of your main messages.

Being able to do this can help you in other contexts as well. In an interview process for example, it can happen that the interviewer does not let you finish your answer before switching to another question. It happened to me once. In this case, I switched to top-down answers and it was super helpful. Even if I did not always get to tell all my points, I still managed to tackle the key messages in the limited time I had. And I could dive into the supporting details as needed if the interviewer gave me more time.

Improve clarity.

The structure of top-down stories make them clear, to the point, and easy to follow without losing focus. In an interview process, it also helps the interviewer see that you are a structured person. Similarly, adopting a top-down approach could also help you not to lose track of your thinking process and the big picture.

The pyramid principle is the reference top-down framework for storylining

The pyramid principle is a very simple yet powerful tool. It was popularized by Barbara Minto at McKinsey and is now widely used, especially in consulting. It is a framework presenting information in a hierarchical top-down manner, in the form of a three-level pyramid. In this framework, the main message comes at the top, supported by supporting arguments, each backed by pieces of evidence.

Top level: main message.

This should be a clear, concise statement that summarizes the essence of your story.

Middle level: supporting arguments.

This consists of the main arguments reinforcing your main message. Arguments are clustered logically in MECE (Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive) themes. MECE is a principle used to organize information into distinct, non-overlapping categories that together cover all possibilities.

Mutually exclusive means that each piece of information falls into only one category, with no overlap. Collectively exhaustive means that all relevant information is included within the categories, leaving no significant gaps.

Base: supporting data.

The base of the pyramid contains the detailed information, data, and evidence which back your supporting arguments and form the clusters. This is where you provide the depth and richness that underpin your story.

The usual rule is to choose three supporting arguments and three insights per argument. The rule of three is a writing principle commonly used as texts divided in three parts are believed to be more impactful. Don’t stress too much about this if you don’t manage to have three though.

3. Add context: frame your story as a situation, a complication and a resolution (SCR method)

Add a bit a context

In summary, don’t waste time and go straight to the point. While that is true for the core part of your story, a hybrid approach is usually required in real life.

Even when presenting a top-down story, I would indeed recommend that you add just a bit of context before delivering your top-down recommendations, for several reasons.

It breaks the ice.

Starting a presentation without any context would feel strange, even with CEOs. When you enter a meeting, a bit of small talk always help before diving into the topics.

It reduces the risks of misalignment.

You don’t want to start deep diving on recommendations only to realize that you misunderstood the context. Adding some context reduces risks of misalignment with your audience.

It can help with some audiences.

Sometimes, especially with more junior audiences or middle-management, your audience will want to focus on details of your methodology. They will usually give you more time to present. In these cases, take extra steps to align on the methodology and context before you dig into the findings.

It’s more comfortable.

Stories we know are not top-down. Outside of work, who likes spoilers? When you read a book or watch a movie, you don’t want to know the end in the first two minutes. You get to know the end at the end, after having listened to different adventures and understood the context.

In a bottom-up or linear approach, you begin with data, context or detailed observations, and build up progressively to a conclusion. The most famous framework which leads the audience sequentially to the end is the narrative arc, a storylining technique most of us learned at school. Novels, tales, movies, most of the stories we know are built that way.

Use the SCR framework to set the scene before focusing on the pyramid

There is a need for adding a bit of context to your top-down pyramid. Nevertheless, make sure to keep it light. The narrative arc is not adapted to the business world, it’s too linear and not top-down. Instead, I would recommend that you use the SCR approach, a business variant of the narrative arc.

The SCR method is a bottom-up framework divided in three blocks: Situation, Complication and Resolution. It has different variants, like the SCQ (Situation, Complication, Question) or SCQA (Situation, Complication, Question, Answer) frameworks.

I would recommend to tackle the Situation and Complication fast, in order to focus on the Recommendations. That way, the recommendations will be presented top-down while the Situation and Complication parts will provide your audience with contextual information.

Situation: the context.

Explain briefly the context (market conditions, organizational circumstances, relevant historical data, etc.). It shows your audience that you know who they are. In a book, it’s the part where you get to know the hero. Start by setting the scene.

Complication: the problem.

Main problem or opportunity. Highlight the complication and why it matters. This is the turning point that creates tension and interest in your story.

Resolution: the recommendations.

Recommendations. Proposed actions to address the complication and lead to a positive outcome. In most cases this is the most important part. Present your solution or recommendations according to the pyramid principle.

4. Iterate, storylining is a trial and error process

Creating a compelling story is an iterative process. Once you have finished your first draft, take a step back and review what you’ve done. Here are some tips to refine your storyline.

Read Again

Review your story multiple times to ensure clarity and coherence. Each read-through can reveal new insights and areas for improvement. Pay attention to the flow and logical progression of your narrative. Make sure that the flow is logical and that your categories collectively cover all necessary aspects of your story, leaving no important details unaddressed.

Read Through Your Audience’s Eyes

Consider your audience’s perspective and adjust your message to address their needs and expectations. What might be clear to you may not be immediately obvious to them.

Ensure that your story is accessible and engaging from their viewpoint. For each item of the executive summary slide, pay particular attention to different aspects:

• Use bold for main parts and add bullet points under each.
• Be mindful for example of jargon-heavy wordings
• Avoid idioms, cultural references or wordplays, which could create confusion in an international company
• Don’t be generic, write specific informative items
• Be concise, keep it to two lines maximum
• Be precise, give numbers when possible, avoid vague adjectives like “very”, etc.

Ask for Feedback

Seek input from colleagues or peers to identify areas for improvement and to ensure your story resonates with others. Fresh eyes can provide valuable feedback and highlight aspects you might have overlooked, or that the main benefits aren’t highlighted clearly enough. Using their insights, you can refine your presentation to make it more effective.

Conclusion

To write a compelling story for a business presentation, follow the steps we mentioned. Start your story early on a blank slide. Think top-down: start with the takeaways and work backwards to the supporting arguments and evidence, as described in the pyramid principle. Then, add context: frame your story as a situation, a complication and a resolution (SCR method). Finally, iterate, storylining is a trial and error process.

I find that this top-down approach wrapped in an SCR structure to add a bit of context works well in the business world. Stay flexible though and be mindful of your audience. No framework is perfect, you can even create your own.

With time, you will probably find that improving your storylining skills will not only improve your presentations, it will also significantly enhance your overall ability to communicate effectively in a business environment. I often apply those principles when I write emails for example.

Happy storylining!